Animals, such as rats and mice, or insects such as flies and cockroaches are subject to extermination, because they contaminate food, carry dangerous diseases and damage property.
The usual approach to such pest control is to use lethal chemical poison or spring-type traps. If rodenticide poisons are use,, they may be hazardous for children. Spring traps are only effective from the bait-containing side. If anticoagulants are used, a rat or a mouse having ingested the same, will not die for several days, thereby increasing the risk of infectious disease through bacterial, viruses, etc. . . In addition, anticoagulants are inhumane. In the case of anti-insect poisons, the same hazard as above remains as regards children.
The prior art has had recourse to a plate covered with pressure-sensitive glue, in order to avoid the above disadvantages. If such plates (for insects, strips of glue-coated material) are provided with sufficiently-attractive bait stimulus, the rat or mouse, or bug, will be caught. However, it has been found that an animal pest can pull free of the glue, since only its paws are stuck to the plate. Moreover, even if the pest does not succeed in getting out of the glue, it remains alive and must be disposed of in another way.